THE BRAZILIAN BLUEPRINT

Our Intercultural Learning Lab expands current thinking about civic engagement beyond any single country's borders. Our current project is the BRAZILIAN BLUEPRINT.

As U.S. Americans, we find ourselves in a deeply unsettling moment in our 249-year-old country. The threat of authoritarianism feels closer and more familiar than ever before. We have long imagined ourselves as a beacon of democracy, yet now face institutional breakdown, polarization, and public distrust from within.

Many look to historical comparisons, particularly the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany. But these analogies, while important, offer only partial relevance. Germany is smaller than Texas, and its historical, social, and political contexts differ widely from ours.

Brazil, by contrast, offers a more resonant, relevant, and underappreciated model. It is the second-largest multiracial democracy in the world. Like the U.S., Brazil is a federation of diverse, independent states. It bears the legacy of slavery and colonization. But unlike the U.S., Brazil has rebuilt its democracy within living memory—emerging from dictatorship in the 1980s with a new constitution designed to fortify democratic institutions.

As we develop a people-focused playbook to counter the authoritarian playbook in use around the world, it is in our national interest to move beyond Eurocentric comparisons and embrace South-North Hemisphere learning. The Brazilian Blueprint centers Brazil as a democratic peer, not a case study.

This multi-year program will bring together U.S. changemakers to learn from counterparts in Brazil and support civic engagement as our countries move into our next chapters.